Approvata la risoluzione ONU per il cessate il fuoco a Gaza 🗞️ Rassegna del 11/06/2024

Israele

(Al Jazeera) What’s in the latest UN Security Council Gaza ceasefire resolution?

• The UN Security Council has scheduled a vote at 3pm (19:00 GMT) on a US resolution that welcomes a ceasefire proposal announced by Biden, which the United States says “Israel has accepted”. It calls on Hamas, which has said it views the proposal “positively”, to accept the three-phase plan. Here’s a look at the document:
   
  • The proposal would begin with an initial six-week ceasefire with the release of captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas in Gaza and the return of Palestinian civilians to all areas in the territory.
     
  • Phase one also requires the safe distribution of humanitarian assistance “at scale throughout the Gaza Strip”, which Biden said would lead to 600 trucks loaded with aid entering Gaza every day.
     
  • In phase two, the draft resolution says that with the agreement of Israel and Hamas, “a permanent end to hostilities, in exchange for the release of all other hostages still in Gaza, and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza” would take place.
     
  • Phase three would launch “a major multi-year reconstruction plan for Gaza and the return of the remains of any deceased hostages still in Gaza to their families”.
     

• If adopted, it would be the first Security Council resolution on a ceasefire plan aimed at ending the eight-month war.
   
• The US-sponsored vote passes with 14 in favour, 0 against and one abstention.

Russia was the one country to abstain.

(Guardian) Prospect of Israeli hostage deal recedes as far-right minister signals opposition

• 
  The prospect of a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas appears to be rapidly receding after the far-right Israeli cabinet member Bezalel Smotrich – on whom Benjamin Netanyahu is now reliant after the resignations of more moderate ministers at the weekend – said he would oppose a deal.

• Smotrich’s comments, during a Knesset committee meeting, came amid the fallout from the resignation of the former army chief of staff Benny Gantz from the war cabinet. Gantz quit on the same weekend that Israel rescued four Israeli hostages held in Gaza in an operation that Gaza’s health ministry said killed more than 270 Palestinians and injured hundreds more.

• The departure of Gantz, the leader of the centre-right National Unity party, leaves Netanyahu with enough seats in his coalition but has made him even more reliant on the support of far-right allies including Smotrich, the finance minister, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, who have repeatedly threatened to walk away over any deal for a ceasefire in exchange for hostages.

• Smotrich said Hamas was “demanding the release of hundreds of murderers [held by Israel] so that the hostages be freed” and called the deal that was being negotiated “collective suicide”, saying it would lead to the murder of Jews.

• “When Hamas demands to end the war while it’s surviving in Gaza, it means that the group is arming itself, digging tunnels, buying rockets and that many Jews could be murdered and taken hostage on another October 7,” Smotrich said.

• Analysts and commentators were quick to say that the possibility of replicating such an operation for the remaining 120 hostages, at least 40 of whom are believed to be dead, were slim as captives would be guarded more closely, making a negotiated deal even more crucial.

(Guardian) US-made Gaza pier resumes aid shipments after storm damage

• Humanitarian assistance has begun to come ashore in Gaza from a US-made pier once more, two weeks after the short-lived sea corridor was suspended due to storm damage, but security concerns after one of the bloodiest days of the war meant the aid was not distributed.

• The head of the World Food Programme (WFP), Cindy McCain, said the food distribution from the pier had been “paused” because she was “concerned about the safety of our people”. An Israeli military operation on Saturday freed four hostages but killed 274 Palestinians and left one Israeli commando dead. McCain told CBS’s Face the Nation programme that two of WFP’s warehouses in Gaza had also been rocketed and a staffer injured.

• The repaired pier had just been reattached to the Gaza coast on Friday after having been seriously damaged by a storm on 25 May. It had been operating for just five days before that.

• After repairs in the Israeli port of Ashdod, it was floated back to the Gaza coast and on Saturday, 492 tonnes of food were unloaded from US naval vessels, the US Agency for International Development (USAid) said. That is roughly 30 truckloads, a 20th of what aid workers say is needed each day to contain the famine that has spread across Gaza.

• Since Joe Biden first announced on 7 March that the US military would build a pier and deliver aid by ship from Cyprus, humanitarian officials have expressed concern that the telegenic drama of the US operation, which costs $230m according to revised Pentagon estimates, would distract attention from the need for the international community to pressure Israel to open all land crossings – a far more efficient and cheaper means of delivering aid – and to improve distribution around Gaza.

• The pier is only made to operate in conditions up to sea state 3, with waves up to 1.25 metres, and was intended as no more than a temporary complement to land crossings with a lifespan of three or four months before the sea becomes too choppy.

• Meanwhile, the severity of the famine in northern Gaza has receded slightly, aid officials said, with a moderate increase in the number of trucks crossing through the West Erez crossing, on Gaza’s northern border near the coast and an Israeli base and kibbutz at Zikim. A total of 190 trucks crossed in the first five days in June. However, the situation there remained grave, according to aid agencies.

Ucraina

(Kyiv Independent) Ukraine hit Russian S-400, S-300 systems in occupied Crimea overnight, General Staff says

• Ukrainian forces attacked Russian S-400 and S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems in several areas in occupied Crimea overnight on June 10, Ukraine's General Staff said. The statement came after a series of explosions were reported in the peninsula at night.

• One S-400 anti-aircraft missile unit was hit near Dzhankoi, and two more S-300 anti-aircraft missile units were attacked near occupied Chornomorske and Yevpatoria, according to the military.

• The radars of the systems reportedly stopped working "immediately" after the strikes. "None of our missiles fired were intercepted by the enemy's 'highly effective' air defense," the General Staff said. "In addition, further detonations of ammunition were observed in all three areas of the launching positions of the Russian anti-aircraft missile divisions."

• The General Staff did not provide further details on the consequences of the attack or what weaponry was used. Russia's modern S-400 Triumph air defense system has an estimated price tag of around $1.2 billion.

Politica internazionale

Asia e Pacifico

India

(New York Times) The New Kingmakers Who Could Make or Break Modi’s Government

• On Wednesday, the B.J.P. said it had reached an agreement to form a coalition government that includes those two regional parties — the Telugu Desam Party and Janata Dal-United. They will be the biggest junior partners, but they are also avowedly secular and removed from Mr. Modi’s Hindu-nationalist ideology. Their combined 28 seats in Parliament will give the prime minister the votes he needs to stay in power and push through his agenda.

• Though some of the members of the B.J.P.’s coalition this year share Mr. Modi’s hard-line vision, both the Telugu Desam Party and Janata Dal-United are moderate, secular parties that have a diverse support base.

• Speculation in India was focusing on what terms the men were demanding for their support, which are unlikely to be rooted in ideology. Both Mr. Naidu and Mr. Kumar are known to be pragmatic, deal-making politicians whose priorities will be practical concessions for their state, or perhaps cabinet positions.

• Mr. Kumar has earned a reputation in India for his willingness to switch allegiances over the past decade. He has gone between aligning himself with the B.J.P.-led coalition to supporting its rivals no fewer than five times.

• Most recently, in January, he returned to Mr. Modi’s alliance just 18 months after he’d left it and with just months to go until the election. He has said his switching of political loyalties was in the interest of his state, Bihar.

• Mr. Naidu has also at times broken with Mr. Modi, cutting ties with the B.J.P. in 2018 and joining forces with its chief rival, Indian National Congress, ahead of the 2019 elections. He has said that his party has aligned with the B.J.P. out of “political compulsion.”

• Mr. Naidu of the T.D.P., based in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, is a technocrat who has aggressively pushed for investment from information technology companies in his region. His policies helped bring high-paying jobs for I.T. professionals and transformed the city of Hyderabad.

• Mr. Kumar is a nine-time chief minister of Bihar, India’s poorest state, who comes from a homegrown socialist background. He has pushed for more funds for low-caste Hindus, and his alliance with the B.J.P. broadened support for the party in his state.

(New York Times) Modi, Striking a Modest Tone, Is Sworn In for a Third Term
 

• As a humbled Narendra Modi was sworn in on Sunday for a third term as India’s prime minister, the political air in New Delhi appeared transformed. Above all, the change can be seen in Mr. Modi himself. For now, at least, the messianic air is gone. He pitches himself as the modest administrator that voters showed they wanted.
   
• When members of the new coalition packed into the hall of India’s old Parliament building on Friday for deliberations on forming the government, every time a senior ally seated next to him stood up to start his speech, Mr. Modi also stood up. When it was time for Mr. Modi to be garlanded as the coalition’s choice for prime minister, he waited for the leaders of the two main coalition partners to arrive by his side before the congratulatory wreath of purple orchids was placed around his neck.
   
• His hourlong address contained none of his usual references to himself in the third person. His tone was measured. He focused on the coalition’s promise of “good governance” and “the dream of a developed India,” and he acknowledged that things would be different from the past 10 years.
   
• The last time Mr. Modi came to the Parliament complex for a closely watched event, last May when he inaugurated a new, more modern building for the assembly, he made an entrance some observers compared with that of a king: with markings on his forehead as a sign of piety and a scepter in his hand, as shirtless, chanting Hindu monks walked ahead of and behind him. This time, he went straight to a copy of the Constitution, which declares that India is a secular and socialist democracy, bowing before it and lifting it to his forehead.

Africa

Malawi

(Guardian) Aircraft carrying Malawi’s vice-president goes missing
 

• An aircraft with Malawi’s vice-president, Saulos Chilima, and nine others onboard has gone missing, the president’s office said in a statement on Monday evening.

• The Malawi defence forces aircraft “went off the radar” after it left the capital Lilongwe at 9.17am local time (0817 BST) and failed to land in Mzuzu, almost 300km (185 miles) north, at its scheduled time of 10.02am.

• “All efforts by aviation authorities to make contact with the aircraft since it went off the radar have failed thus far,” said the statement, signed by Colleen Zamba, secretary to Malawi’s president. The statement did not specify the type of aircraft.

• The president, Lazarus Chakwera, ordered a search and rescue operation and cancelled a planned visit to the Bahamas.

Sud Africa
(Al Jazeera)South Africa legalises cannabis use. Will the rest of Africa follow?

• On the eve of the May 27 general elections, which saw the ruling African National Congress lose its majority for the first time in 30 years of South African democracy, a major change to the country’s drug laws slipped through, barely noticed by most.

• Just one day before the historic ballot, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act, making South Africa the first African nation to legalise the use of marijuana.

• The bill removes cannabis from the country’s list of outlawed narcotics, meaning adults are now free to grow and consume the plant (except in the presence of children). The bill also stipulates that those who broke the law by committing such deeds should have their records automatically wiped clean. However, it is unclear how this will take place or when and if any of the 3,000 people in prison for cannabis-related offences as of 2022 will be released.

• The new legislation has been six years in the making. After a 2018 court ruling that private consumption of cannabis was constitutional, the government was told to prepare legislation which would legalise it within two years.

• Since then, shops and dispensaries have been selling the drug under Section 21 of the Medicines Act, which allows for “unregistered medicines” if prescribed by a doctor. The 2018 ruling meant that cannabis could be included in this list of unregistered medicines.